Over the years, professional automobile racing has become increasingly popular and has garnered many new fans. This increased fan base has created a demand for teaching tools that visually demonstrate techniques used in automobile racing. One such technique is known as “stagger.”
The performance of racing automobiles on banked tracks is often improved by “staggering” the inside tires as compared with the outside tires. When tires are staggered, such that the inside tires have a smaller diameter than the outside tires, the outside tires will travel farther than the inside tires with each tire revolution, by a distance of π*(Dlarge−Dsmall), where Dlarge is the larger diameter of the outside tires and Dsmall is the smaller diameter of the inside tires. While this difference is nominal over a short distance, over longer distances the difference in diameters will cause the car to move along a curved path. The tire stagger thus accommodates banked tracks, leading to higher race car speeds and better handling characteristics.